No. 239.]

OF

[PRICE 2d.

Or all the modern churches lately erected, not one seems to have met the general taste so much as the new church at Chelsea, and few who have seen it have been backward in acknowledging it the least faulty of all modern attempts at a revival of the architecture of the middle ages. commonly termed Gothic. The above engraving represents the principal or western front of this highly beautiful edifice; it is of the style of architecture which prevailed in our ecclesiastical ediVOL. IX.

1

fices during part of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which is carefully adhered to throughout the structure. The first object that arrests our attention in this front is its lofty and well proporti oned tower, the area of which, with the arcade communicating thereto, forms a continued covered walk, and is at once a great convenience and embellishment; the principal entrance, which is in the tower, has a projecting gablet enriched by tracery and crocketting, and surmount

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corated with ornamental sculpture and the workmanship is particularly delicate and well executed. It occupies the whole breadth of the nave. That part of it under the great eastern window is di vided by slender buttresses, with richly carved pinnacles into five compartments, having ogee arches over them with very elegant crocketting and finials; the centre division is wider than the rest, and is further distinguished by superior enrichment; the spandrils of the arches are ornamented by panels with heads of tracery. Above these are a carved frieze of running foliage and a cornice, with seven busts of angels fronting the same; on each side of the great window is a niche surmounted by a canopy, pierced with minute tracery; beneath these are doors leading to the vestry. In the centre division of the screen is inserted a picture of the ascension, I believe by Northcote. The great window, which occupies nearly the whole space above the altarscreen, has been before noticed; suffice it to say, that its spacious dimension and elegant arrangement greatly contribute to the grand and dignified effect, which the spot where the most solemn rites are performed ought to possess, and which, it is gratifying to observe, has been scrupulously regarded.

The font is octagonal, and is executed in marble; it is placed in the centre aisle between the pulpit and reading-desk.

The pulpit and reading-desk are of wainscot, they are octangular and supported by piers and arches, and are tastefully carved. The pewing is executed of the same material.

The building is of brick, cased externally with Bath stone, of which material all the outside ornamental work is executed. It is capable of containing near 2,000 persons. The dimensions are as follows:

Interior length of church
Width

Feet.

130

61

60

32

142

EMBALMING.

(For the Mirror.)

FOR what we know of the Egyptian manner of embalming human bodies, we are chiefly indebted to Herodotus and Diodorus, who inform us, that among the ancient Egyptians the art of embalming, like other trades, was professed by particular persons; and when a corpse was brought to them, they shewed the friends of the deceased several models or patterns made of wood, painted like an embalmed body, giving them also an account of the expense that would attend each manner of preparation; for it is to be observed, that they had three different ways of preparing a corpse for burial, one of which was very expensive, amounting to upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, the second to about a fourth part of that sum, and the charge of the third was very little.

As the Egyptians undoubtedly were the first to preserve their dead in this manner, it may have suggested itself from the theology of these ancient people, who not only believed the resurrection, but that as long as the body endured, the soul continued with it. Hence it would

appear they took so much care to embalm their dead, in order to preserve them from corruption, that so the souls of the deceased might long remain about their respective bodies, not to animate or quicken them, but only as attendants or guardians, unwilling to leave their former habitations; and upon the same account they deposited them in the most durable buildings, endeavouring thereby, as far as they were able, to render them eternal.

*

The embalming was done with such inimitable art, that the body was not in the least disfigured, the hairs remained on the brows and eye-lids, and the person might even be known by his countenance. The corpse on being delivered to the relations, and being enclosed in a coffin made of the sycamore, was then deposited in a sepulchre, or in those famous catacombs or mummy-pits, of which travellers give us the following description:-Those who have the cu riosity to visit these pits, where the mummies or embalmed bodies are deposited, are let down by ropes, the holes in the sides made to descend by, being so worn away, that it is dangerous, if not impracticable, to go down in that manner. Some of the pits are twenty or twenty

What we now call the sycamore-tree is in reality a kind of maple, and very different from the sycamorus of the ancients. Of the wood of the sycamore, the ancient Egyptians made their coffius, some of which remain to this day.

five, others thirty feet deep, and at the bottom there are horizontal passages which lead into square rooms, in which are found the remains of embalmed bodies, swathes scattered up and down, and sometimes chests and coffins standing upright and entire, which are made of sycamore, or Pharoah's fig-tree, and have continued sound in these subterraneous apartments above three thousand years, notwithstanding the wood is spongy and porous to appearance. The top of the coffin is commonly shaped like a head, with a face painted upon it resembling a woman; the rest is one continued trunk, and the bottom is broad and flat, upon which it stands upright in the repository. Most of these coffins are adorned with hieroglyphics, and some of them are finely gilt and painted, either with the figure of some tutelar deity, or that of the deceased. Little images of various kinds, some of copper, others of stone, are sometimes ranged round the pedestals of the coffins, as if designed for so many guardian genii and attendants. The bodies, upon opening the coffins, appear wrapped up in a linen shroud, upon which are fastened several scrolls, likewise of linen, painted with hieroglyphic characters. These scrolls commonly run down the belly and sides, or else are fixed on the knees and legs. On a kind of head-piece of linen, which covers the face, the countenance of the person is represented in gold; and the feet have also a covering of the same, shaped like a slipper, and painted with hieroglyphics. The whole body is swathed with fillets, or narrow bandages of linen, which are wrapped round in such a curious manner, with so many windings, and so often one upon another, that it is supposed a corpse has seldom less than a thousand ells of filleting. Those especially about the head and face are laid on with wonderful peatness, insomuch that the shape of the eyes, nose, and mouth, are plainly perceived. The breast is also covered with folds of linen cut scollop-wise, richly gilt and painted; and sometimes we see the figure of a woman with her arms extended, the wings of fowls, or other ornaments. It is to be observed that the mummy-chests or coffins are not always of wood, some few being of stone; and of the wooden ones, some are made of boards, and others hollowed out of one piece of timber. There are also some bodies that have no other coffins than pieces of linen gummed or glued together, which yet are as durable as those of wood or stone; and there are others which have no coffins at all, but are wrapped up in reeds or branches of palm. These last,

no doubt, were the poorer sort of people, whose families could not bear the expense of coffins; and it is probable they were piled one upon another, whereas the coffins stood upright upon their pedestals.

The Egyptians, however, did not always bury their dead immediately after they were embalmed, but sometimes kept them in their houses in magnificent apartments, having by this means the satisfaction of viewing the lineaments of their ancestors, who died some ages before them; and Lucian, who pretends to have been an eye-witness of what he relates, says, "they often brought the embalmed body of a friend as a guest to their feasts and entertainments." Necessitous persons, we are told, have sometimes pawned the bodies of their parents or brothers, for money; but Diodorus says, it was reckoned the greatest reproach not to redeem them, and those who neglected to do it were themselves deprived of burial.

Of the several methods of embalming by the Egyptians as described by the an cient writers, it will be sufficient to observe that upon opening the head of a mummy, a certain composition, even unto this day, presents itself of the consistence, colour, and smell of pitch, but sometimes more fragrant. After cleansing and purifying the body, (the intestines being only withdrawn,) it was then filled with pounded myrrh, cassia, and other odoriferous drugs, and the incision being sewed up, the body was carefully anointed with oil of cedar for above thirty days, or else laid for more than twice that time in nitre, which being expired, the whole body was again washed with palmwine and aromatic odours, bound up in swathes of fine linen, and covered with gums, which the Egyptians used instead of glue. But those whose circumstances would not admit of such an expense, had recourse to a more ordinary preparation. Without cutting the body open, they injected into it, by a pipe, a quantity of oil of cedar, laid it in nitre, and after a certain term they let out the oil, by which processit was rendered similar to a carcass. The third way of preserving a corpse was only to cleanse the belly by injected lotions, and salt the body for seventy days; and this was practised by the poorer sort of people.

Dr. Grew, in his Museum Regalis Societatis, is however of opinion that the Egyptians boiled their dead bodies in a large cauldron, with a certain kind of liquid balsam. His reason is, that in the mummies preserved in the collection of the Royal Society, the balm has penetrated not only the fleshy parts, but even

ne very bones, so that they are all as black as if they had been burnt.

The Peruvians, it seems, had an effectual method of preserving the bodies of their deceased incas or kings. Their main secret is supposed to have been the burying them in snow, and afterwards applying a certain bitumen, mentioned by Acosta, which kept them as entire as if they had been still alive. The Jews as we are told by Camden, the Assyrians and the Scythians had all different ways of preserving their dead, but the most extraordinary method is that adopted in the monastery of St. Bernard. It is the custom with that fraternity to preserve the dead bodies of the monks, and after wards place them erect in niches along the walls. This is effected by baking them for five or six months in a very slow oven, contrived for the purpose, and they will remain thus preserved for centuries, without changing or being the least offensive. They are dressed in the hoods and cloaks when placed up.

F. R. Y.

Origins and Inventions.

No. XXIV.

MOURNING.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.) SIR,-Perhaps the following additional facts may not prove an uninteresting conclusion to the above subject.

The custom of mourning, and for certain periods, is of a very ancient date. Abraham mourned for Sarah; Joseph mourned seven days for his father; and the Children of Israel mourned thirty days for Moses. The origin of the prac tice of mourners being distinguished by a certain dress is unknown, though probably gained through the original indifference, and manifest carelessness, of dress in those individuals who were deeply afflicted.

The conduct by which some of mankind are distinguished, and the various observances on these melancholy occasions, are singular and extraordinary. The Romans, it is known, conducted their funeral obsequies with great magnificence, and funeral games. The Greeks burnt the bodies of distinguished individuals, with funeral feasts, and the lamentations of hired weepers. The Persians buried the remains of the dead. The Scythians ate them. The Indians envelope them for preservation sake, in a sort of lacker. The Egyptians embalmed and dried them, exhibited them on festal days, placed them at table amongst their guests, guarded them as their most pre

cious possessions, and lent and borrowed money on these strange pledges. The Orientals made the horses in their funeral processions weep, by blowing a particular powder up their nostrils. Some of the American Indians lay their dead bodies upon scaffolds, where they erect seats for the mourners, who go every day and sit for a considerable time by them, and weep and howl; but if they cannot go themselves, they hire persons to howl in their stead. In Spain, a widow passed the first year of her mourning in a chamber hung with black, into which daylight was never suffered to enter. When this lugubrious year was ended, she changed it for a chamber hung with grey, into which she sometimes admitted an intrusive sun-beam, but in neither chamber did custom permit her to have a looking. glass, nor anything but actual necessaries. This victim was immediately discharged from her gloomy prison if she obtained another husband. In parts of Africa, the husband is no sooner dead than his wives, concubines, servants, and some

times horses, must be strangled, in order

to render him the same services in a future life which they did in this. At the Cape of Good Hope, in order that widows might not impose themselves on men as virgins, they were obliged, by law, to cut off a joint from a finger for every husband that dies; this joint they present to their new husband on the day of their marriage. In the Isthmus of Darien,, both sexes were obliged to observe this custom, that none of them might impose themselves on each other for what they were not. In Darien, when a widow dies, such of her children as are too young to provide for themselves, arc buried with her in the same grave. Herodotus mentions, that among the ancient Cretonians, a people of Thrace, widows, assisted by their relations, made interest who should be preferred to the honour of being killed on the grave of the deceased husband. Some ancient nations dressed themselves as women when they lost their relations, in order, it is related, that the ridicule attached to their vestments might make them ashamed of their grief.

In England, the king never wears black; he is clothed in purple as mourning. The chancellor of France is the only person in the kingdom who never wears mourning. The brothers, nephews, and cousins of popes never wear it. The happiness of having a pope in a family is so great as not to allow them to be even afflicted with his death. Till the reign of Charles VIII. white was the funeral garb of France; and the court mourning there for the universally la